Tag: iPhone

Apple Lies to Customers about Data Recovery from Damaged iPhones

In this fascinating video, the CBC follows a couple who needed to recover thousands of pictures from an iPhone after it was dropped in water. The video shows how Jessa Jones, who specializes in iPhone repair, is able to get the dead phone working again so that the couple can get their priceless photos back.

The kicker, though, is that Apple’s official forums ban Jessa and others who point out this option to iPhone users. In fact, users are frequently told that recovering data from dead or damaged iPhones is impossible, and that those who claim they can do so are scammers. Jones herself regularly has her posts deleted and account banned for simply stating the truth–that there is a good chance that a third party repair service will be able to assist in recovering the data.

As Jones points out in a subsequent video on Louis Rossman’s YouTube channel, Apple is actively harming its users with this absurd tone deaf approach. Someone who seeks to recover their memories from a device deserves more from Apple than boilerplate “if it wasn’t backed up to iCloud it can’t be recovered” nonsense.

Shame on Apple.

The Difference Between Buying a Samsung Note 8 vs. Apple iPhone

So T-Mobile shipped my Samsung Galaxy Note 8 pre-order out a couple weeks early. While configuring and playing around with what is the best phone I’ve ever owned, I was struck by one of the main differences between buying a Samsung phone vs. what I observe when people buy an iPhone.

My wife has always owned iPhones, for example. She has never had the experience, to my knowledge, of paying almost $1,000 for a phone and then needing to do the following:

  1. Go to Google and search for “how do I disable Bixby.”
  2. Go to the Google Play store and find the BK Package Disabler(Samsung).
  3. Pay $2.49 for said package disabler.
  4. After authorizing the package disabler, use it to disable all Bixby services.

My wife and other iPhone users don’t do this for, say, Siri because in large measure they simply want to use their phones to accomplish whatever it is they want to accomplish, and they don’t mind Apple constraining their choices.

This is why I have never used iPhones. If I were the sort of person who wanted a damn button that I had no control over which launched an annoying voice command system, I wouldn’t buy Android phones.

Pocket Legends – An MMO for the iPod/iPhone/iPad

Space Time Studios’ Pocket Legends is a scaled-down free to play MMO for the iPod/iPhone/iPad.

It offers three basic classes, along with typical MMO feature such as leveling, upgradeable stats and skills, etc.

It has been getting very good initial reviews. Space Time’s free to play model seems to be selling additional content/areas beyond the initial area for a fee, though at the moment there isn’t much available at all for purchase for the game.

Nice, and clearly just the beginning of the transition of MMOs to mobile devices (along with the increasingly prevalent mobile enhancement of traditional PC-based MMOs).


Munchkin Level Counter iPhone/iPod Touch App

Steve Jackson Games has created a Munchkin Level Counter app for the iPod Touch and iPhone. The app not only provides a helpful level counter to keep track of your progress, but also includes a “Boon” option which the player can use once per game and awards one of 150 in-game advantages such as treasure or yet another way to stab your friends in the back.

A bit pricey at $4.99, but I’m sure they’ll sell plenty of these.

Munchkin Level Counter - Screenshot 1

Munchkin Level Counter - Boon screen